


Taking the Big L

by ivorysweep



Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: BAMF Gwen Stacy, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Enemies to Friends, Gen, Human Disaster Eddie Brock, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Protective Peter Parker, References to Addiction, Sweet Miles Morales, Unethical Experimentation, Venom is Made of Love (and it's stronger than you)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-01-12 09:09:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18443462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivorysweep/pseuds/ivorysweep
Summary: Miles lets out a frustrated sigh."OK, just, just so we're clear. He's either a body-snatching alien, a thinly veiled metaphor for superhero crack, a Nazi experiment-cannibal-serial-killer, literally the Big Bad Wolf, or Spider-Man's worst nemesis of all time. That's cool and all but..." he throws his hands up. "This doesn’t help me! I get the dude's bad news-- but my version of him, I don't even know what he is! How'm I supposed to stop this guy?"





	1. Miles meets a monster

SWOOSH! 

Miles careens through the flock of pigeons, sending feathers flying. He’s angled his landing just right to kick backwards off the gleaming side of the Oscorp Building, tuck, roll, and fall. Why didn’t Peter tell him how much fun this was? It’s better than flying. He watches his reflection fall, laughing, through the mirrored windows, as they plunge halfway down. Then—thwip, pull. He’s flying effortlessly up again in a lazy arc. Doesn’t even need to look before he leaps. He’ll figure it out on the way down. 

Miles closes his eyes for a moment at the apex of the swing. This is the moment he loves best: half a second of total weightlessness, of pause, the whole world wrapped around him in sunset light and traffic noise far below. For one moment—perfect. And then he’s pulled downwards into the whistling fall of the downward swing, but he’s not afraid. No, his body is already curling, twisting in midair, his eyes already scanning for his next thwip. 

It might a’ took a while, but Miles is hitting his stride. Finding his sea legs. Getting into the rhythm of things! Point being, he’s feeling more and more at ease with being the Spider-Man of this dimension. And the city’s getting used to it as well. There’s even a viral thinkpiece by the editor of Daily Bugle Online, called “I’m Not Racist, But the New Spider-Man’s a Menace.” 

Things are finally falling into place. 

Miles is so caught up in his web-slinging, he doesn’t even notice the muggers until he hears a cry from the alleyway—the alley he just swung past—and he has to double back. Thwips a line to a street lamp, swing an almost-perfect U-turn and coming in for a graceful landing next to an oversized dumpster. 

And he freezes. His heart jumps into his mouth and he ducks behind the dumpster, forgetting that’s already, automatically, turned invisible. Because there’s a monster in the alley. 

It’s almost twice Miles’s height. Black, so deep black the light seems to disappear into it, but also somehow reflect? Like a walking oil slick. It’s vaguely human-shaped, in the body, maybe, but its hands are just claws and oh god, it’s face is going to be horrible when it turns around, he just knows it. Miles is sweating.

“Please, man, I-I’m sorry, just lemme go!” the would-be mugger begs.

**“YOU WANTED TO HURT US,”** says the monster in absolutely the worst, deepest-darkest-bone-chillingest voice Miles has ever imagined. He can practically see the monster’s speech bubbles dripping in horror-movie font. Something long and sinuous flicks over the monster’s shoulder—is that its tongue? **“YOU’RE A BAD GUY. AND WE’RE SSSOOOO HUNGRY…”**

And just when Miles thinks his eyes can’t get any larger, the monster lifts the mugger up by the neck, half-turning, and Miles can see its jaw unhinge and oh god oh god oh god oh god TEETH! So many teeth, how it possible to have that many— The two-foot-long tongue shoots out the monster’s gaping maw and slithers around the man’s face. Tasting.

**“OH YEAH,”** the monster purrs. **“YOUR BRAIN WILL TASTE EVEN BETTER WITH ALL THAT DELICIOUS FEAR!”**

And that’s it, Miles is shaking but he’s got to do something, he can’t let this guy get eaten. 

“H-hey!” he yells, stepping out from behind the dumpster. “Hey, you! Hey, uh,” –the monster spins around and Miles sees its face full-on for the first time. “Let, let him go. And put your hands where I can see them!” His voice cracks a little behind the bravado. 

The monster snarls and actually snaps at him, tongue lashing. Miles is 99% sure he’s about to get eaten, along with the mugger, but the monster… puts the guy down?

**“WHAT?... THAT’S NOT FAIR!”** the monster snarls. **“OKAY, FINE! WE WON’T EAT HIM. WE’LL JUST STARVE INSTEAD. HAPPY NOW?”**

“Uh… kind of?” Miles opens one eye. Did he just win this round? 

Apparently not, because the monster flicks its wrist and suddenly Miles is stuck in some kind of black goo. Wait, what?? He struggles against it, heartbeat pounding furiously. He’s trapped in some kind of... black web! By the time he looks back up, the monster is gone. The mugger is on the ground apparently having some kind of nervous breakdown. 

“Uh,” Miles says, firmly webbed to the brick wall. “A little help?”

* * * * 

The next day, Miles makes a detour to May Parker’s house. 

“Well,” she says, dusting off her hands as she stands up from the flowerbeds. “Fancy seeing you here, young man. Tea?” 

Miles nods. In the kitchen, he fidgets on the worn stool, as he waits for May to finish putting the kettle on. 

“So I’m guessing this isn’t purely a social call,” May begins. 

“Yeah. I mean, no! I mean, it’s good to see you, Mrs. Parker. How, uh, how are you doing?” 

May laughs. 

“Miles, please. I’ve been part of Spider-Man’s life for long enough to know that look. There’s trouble brewing, isn’t there? You don’t have to warm me up with small talk—I’m flattered you came to me.” She takes out two mugs and drops a tea bag into each. “So what’s going on, kiddo?” 

“Uh. Weeellll… I was swinging through midtown the other day and, um… did Peter ever fight like, a monster? Like, a, a, a ten-foot fall, black, like, tentacle oil grease monster, with teeth just, everywhere, and, and, it eats people’s heads! Because it kind of looks like him. Peter, I mean. His mask! His mask as Spider-Man.” Miles drops his forehead on the table. “That wasn’t what I meant.” 

May laughs. 

“Now you really do remind me of him,” she says. “His sentences were always running off with him, too.” She takes a sip of the tea. “I’m sorry, Miles. Whatever this thing is, Peter never faced it.” 

Miles groans. 

“But did you say—it eats people’s heads?” May asks. 

“I mean, it tried to. Not eat my head, but. There was a mugger?” 

May relaxes. 

“So you didn’t actually see it eat anyone’s…” 

“No! No, god no. Not that I would have been scared or anything. Because I wasn’t. Scared, I mean.”

“Mm-hm.” May takes another sip, her eyes watching him shrewdly from over the top of the cup. “Have you called the others yet?” 

“The others? I mean,” Miles tries a crooked smile, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, the others, they went back to their own—”

“Young man, let me tell you, you’re a terrible liar. Now, I know and you know that you’ve got the magical walkie-talkie that Gwen left you, so you might as well stop pretending and go ahead and call them. What’s that look?”

“It’s just, it’s only for emergencies.” 

May makes a heh sound. “Seems it didn’t stop you from calling Gwen for a visit after Tony Stark put on that ridiculous light show downtown—” 

“Hey, she wanted to see what Ironheart looks like as a white guy!” 

“—nor did it keep you from calling Disaster Peter when you got yourself stuck on that rocket,” May goes on mercilessly. 

“My powers malfunctioned!” 

“Mm-hm. My point is, they don’t seem to be terribly busy when you call them. And this whatever it is, this cannibal oil monster,” May stops, and Miles doesn’t miss the worried quirk of her eyebrows. “It sounds pretty serious. And if it looks like Peter’s mask…” she trails off, then shakes her head. “No. Nobody would dare to try and bring him back. But this monster is connected to him. Or to you. To Spider-Man. This is exactly when to call your friends.” 

 * * * * 

Peter B., Gwen, and Noir are all on the channel at the same time, which is rare. Gwen’s on almost all the time, but Noir is still adjusting to the technology, and Peter is… Peter. He doesn’t always respond, unless it’s to leave a long, rambling message with the important stuff at the end. 

“…doesn’t really matter, though,” he’s saying, waving a hand dismissively. “Acid, meteors, electricity, or good old-fashioned gamma rays. He got zapped and now he’s wonky. It’s weird, because you’d expect most zapped wonkies to be weird or dying or whatever, but no, they all either die or, you know, become like him, and—”

“Hey guys,” Miles calls, nodding to their greetings, “Yeah, so I have a question for y’all. So there’s this monster who kind of looks like Spider-Man… uh, he’s black? Not black like me, I mean, he’s like made of oil or something? But with teeth. Spider-Man mask eyes and way too many teeth, and I think he eats people. He tried to and I stopped him. Oh, and he shot black webs at me! Webs, like my webs! Has, uh, anyone fought this guy before?” 

There’s a second of silence before they all start talking at once. 

“Miles, get out of there if you’re anywhere near—” “DO NOT engage him, I’m on my way—” “—one so young, but innocence is never—”

Then Peter B.’s face fills the screen, and he looks more serious than Miles has ever seen him. 

“Miles. Do not go anywhere near Venom. I’m on my way.” 

“Venom? So you do know—” 

BLIP. Peter’s face disappears. Gwen is next, also looking grim. 

“Whoever Venom has this time, we’ve got to save them,” she says. “Hold tight, Miles. You don’t have to face this alone. I’ll call the other two and meet you and Peter at May’s. Don’t go anywhere.” 

“Wait, you gotta tell me—”

BLIP. Gwen vanishes too. That leaves Noir, and Miles sighs, because he knows what’s coming.

“Black, jet black,” Noir intones. “The soul of the city is blacker than night, blacker than oil. Blacker than sin. But Venom’s soul… is even darker. The kind of darkness that sucks all the color out of the world. I’m coming to help you, Miles.” He clenches his fist and the camera tilts perilously. “I can only hope I make it in time.” 


	2. Venom's secret origins

Miles doesn’t have to wait long. He’s just settled on the couch when the back door bursts open and May Parker’s living room is full of Spider-people, doing what they do best: panicking and talking fast.

“OkayokayOKAYOKAAAAAY!” Peter B.’s cuts through the mayhem. “Thank you, spider-kids.” 

“Hey!” Miles protests.

“Ah. Shhh.” Peter dismisses him with a wave of his hand. “Listen, it’s great to see the ol’ team getting back together, solidarity, yadda yadda yadda, but: _Venom_ is not age-appropriate for spider-kids.”

“Which is why we need to work _together!_ ” Gwen snaps.

“Which is why Noir and I will be taking care of the sitch. If you’re not old enough to buy beer, or drive, or vote or join the Army, you are sitting this one _out_.” Peter aims a finger gun at Peni and gestures from her to Gwen, Miles, and stops on Spider-ham. “Also if you’re a Saturday morning cartoon character, cause I’m guessing the content warning on your universe is PG.” 

“Oh, ohohohoho, you would, would you?” Spider-Ham is puffing his chest up, lifting off the ground. “Thanks a lot for lumping me in the kiddoes, really makes me feel appreciated. I’ll have you know the Venom in my verse is a lot higher rated than ‘PG.’ (Wait, what’s a higher rating? QP? PH?) A-hem. Venom, AKA _Pork Grind_ , is half pig, half wolf, half sausage factory, and all TEETH! He’s tried to turn me into canned ham more times than I care to count. And when he can’t get Spider-Ham, he’ll go after anyone! ANYONE! Anyone, seriously, he’s got no taste in men.” 

“Yeah, that’s not Venom, that’s Wile E. Coyote and a few art style changes to avoid copyright issues,” Peter snaps. “You’re not getting near Venom. Oh! Oh, sorry, what I meant to say was—“ he takes a deep breath and holds up his hands in sarcastic excitement. “I have a SPECIAL MISSION for ALL of you!! You need to stay right here and guard Miles, from the safest place in the city, which coincidentally is this living room, right here, which you will not leave, even if I have to web you here, while Noir and I go deal with a problem _that is most definitely out of your age-appropriate challenge rating.”_

“Challenge rating?” Miles mutters, but Gwen interrupts him with a scoff. 

“Seriously? We’re back the thing where you pretend you’re somehow a grownup because you’re a few years older than us?” 

“Yeah! Besides, some of us have fought Venom before and actually won!” Peni chimes in. Everyone stares at her for a moment, and she squares her shoulders. “I’d only teamed up with SP//dr for a few months when I heard about my evil uncle’s secret project: a second mech suit, more advanced and more powerful but using the same biomechanical engineering principles. They called it Ven#m.”

“How is she doing that? I can actually see the hashtag in the name!” says Spider-Ham.

“Unlike the SP//dr suit, it only needed one pilot. And…” Peni’s eyes drop to the floor. “She was a classmate. A friend. I didn’t know it at the time, but she asked for a team-up, for tips on how to control it, and I… I wasn’t there for her. We were fighting a kaiju and, in the middle of the battle, something went wrong. The suit, it started to assimilate her. Her body… her mind. It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen. My aunt May went in to try to save her, but it was too late.” A single tear slides down Peni’s face. “Addy was too far gone. She’d become part of it. And then Ven#m… it killed my aunt.” 

Everyone stills, even Peter. Then he points at Peni. 

“That. _That._ Right there. That is exactly why none of you are getting near Venom. Even in anime schoolgirl land, it deals tragic-backstory levels of damage. And last time I checked, everyone in this room already had a tragic backstory. So we’re not going to tempt fate, we’re going to play this smart and keep Venom far far _far away from the Spider-kids, while Noir and I go light it on fire.”_

“Wait, that works?” Miles asks. “Fire. Fire hurts it.” 

“Fire, loud noises, and sometimes electricity, although the last is kind of inconsistent, no idea why,” Peter responds instantly. 

“Yes, we shut Ven#m with fire in the end,” Peni says, at the same time that Spider-Ham says, “Burn baby burn!” 

Noir says, “Everything has its equal opposite, its kryptonite, its Achilles heel. But if you can’t find what that is… fire kills almost everything.” 

“Wait, so fire isn’t like a super-weakness for your Venom?” Peter asks. 

“Venom. There are few names that strike such universal and all-encompassing terror into the hearts of the wicked,” Noir intones. 

“Wait, so Venom’s a good guy?” Miles puts in. 

Noir laughs bitterly. 

“Far from it. Venom is to the common street criminal what a lion is to a gazelle. No matter how far they sink, how strong they think they are, how depraved they—” Noir stops at a warning cough from both Peter B. and May Parker. “My point is, there’s always something worse. Always a bigger fish. And Venom… is the biggest, deep-sea fish, in the sewage-laden scumpond that is… _my city_.” He pauses. “Strange. Lightning usually strikes in these pauses. A-ahem. They say he was a serial killer once. A man so wicked, so twisted in his ways, not even God could judge him. He killed his victims slowly, horribly, and when they finally died, they became his food. Fish food, for the biggest fish from the darkest trench of the human heart.” 

“What?” Gwen mouths. 

“He was captured during the secret Nazi invasion of Christmas Eve,” Noir continues. “I… don’t think it happened here. But Nazis dragged him back, cursing and spitting, in an iron net. They took him with them when they left, and for three years, the streets were a little safer, the air a little cleaner, the light burned a little brighter. But then… he returned, to haunt my streets. He was barely human before; now, he’d become something else. Something worse. His bones slither now; his skin drips and oozes; his face is—” Noir stops, quailing under the narrowed gaze of May Parker. “He’s some kind of monster, is what I’m saying. He can melt under doors, or tear them open with claws. _Only his appetite remains the same… his appetite for human flesh.”_

“Whoa, okay there buddy,” Peter says. “That’s plenty. Annnnd I think you made my point, which is that Venom is—” 

“Oh, come on!” interrupts Gwen. “You can’t seriously be warning us away from this Venom because Noir’s version is a literal Nazi cannibal serial killer, can you? Let’s be honest here, guys. Spider-Ham, Peni, Noir—your universes are not as similar as mine, Miles’, and Peter B.’s. They’re just different! Weirder, or, more exciting, whatever you prefer. But you can’t really predict who Venom is going to be here, by who he is in cartoonland, anime world, or Noir’s horror detective whatever city.” She crosses her arms and looks Peter in the face. “I don’t know what you’re so scared of. I’ve met Venom before, and it wasn’t that bad.” 

“Oh?” Miles perks up at that, and Peni leans forward, interested. 

"You _what?"_ Peter sounds angrier than Miles has ever heard him. "It's not that bad?? Gwen. You _tried_ it already?" 

"Tried it?" Gwen frowns. "What are you talking about it? It's an alien. That's all it is." She levels a gaze at Miles. "Look, in my world, an asteroid landed in the San Francisco Bay, and a bunch of shady scientists confiscated it before the US government could get a look. Turns out, the asteroid had an alien on it, some kind of gooey blob thing. I was looking for something else entirely in Dr. Brock's lab, but I saw it get out. And... jumped into me, I guess?" 

Peter snorts bitterly, rolling his eyes. 

"Shut up! I don't... it was weird, being possessed. Anyway, it's like a puppetmaster alien, and it was looking for--" Gwen uses air finger quotes "'its perfect host.' Basically used me as temporary transport until it could jump into a guard, and then walked him away before I could recover. I've been tracking it since then. But..." she shifts uncomfortably. "I'm not sure it's actually evil? At least, when it controlling me, it wasn't... I mean, it didn't _want_ to kill or eat anyone, not like Noir's guy. It was more like, she was trying to survive and willing to do whatever it took." 

"Yeah, _you_ are definitely benched," Peter butts in. "Also, Gwen: stay away from Venom. It can and _will_ ruin your life. Trust me, I've been down the road you're thinking about." 

"What road?" Miles asks, getting a little antsy. "What it is? What are we dealing with?" 

"Long story short, cut to the chase: she's right about it being an alien," Peter says. "Symbiote, actually. They can't survive in Earth's atmosphere-- thank GOD-- so they need hosts. Puppets. Human meatsuits. But thing is, most humans won't let themselves be turned into puppets, so they're a bunch of lying, scheming, little bastards who pretend to be... Yeah, mine looked like a suit. A suit from space, which is objectively cool, and it gave me super-powers, which was even cooler. Plus, I look good in black. Everyone looks good in black! Side note for later, why are we letting villains take the most badass (and slimming) color? Well, anyway, I'll spare you the details, but the Avengers eventually showed up on my doorstep and told me it was an evil alien symbiote and basically eating me from the inside. Yeah, gross. So I did the right thing and got rid of it that night." 

"Really." Gwen asks suspiciously. 

"Yeah, and... it rotted my insides, and it was, as I said, _super gross_ ," Peter says, folding his arms. "We're not doing that again. But I know how to take it down, so leave that to me." 

"Oh, come on! You got to show me how to fight. You know? Spidey and Spidey, side by side, you teaching me how to take down the bad guys? I thought I was like, your surrogate son or something!" 

"More like the plastic dolls they give highschoolers they know'll end up as teen parents," Peter grumbled. "You're my practice baby." Miles' puppy dog eyes do not falter. "Yeah, sorry, that's not going to work this time, because it just fuels my resolve to keep you away from Venom. Miles, Gwen, you're both benched." 

"What?" they both shriek, simultaneously. 

"Don't we get to vote on this?" Gwen asks. 

"Yeah, who died and made you team boss?" Miles adds. 

"Uh, that would be this dimension's first Spider-Man, who, if he were here, would tell you both to listen to me, because I am old and full of wisdom," Peter says. "Peni, Spider-Ham, you get to guard them." 

Peni nods, a quick determined little nod, and strikes a pose. 

"No evildoer shall enter this house!" 

"Oh, fine. That too. I meant 'keep Miles and Gwen from following me like I'm sure they're planning to,' but, sure. Guard the house from evildoers." Peter shrugs. "Oh, and Peni and Spider-Ham: consider my favors cashed in." 

Spider-Ham's jaw drops to the floor. 

"You wouldn't!" 

"Oh yes I would. You said you owed me for that crossover team-up, so I'm cashing in. Don't let them follow us." Peter pauses in the doorway. "Oh yeah-- Miles, where did you say you saw Venom in the city?" 

"This is so unfair! Take me with me, and I- I'll show you!" 

"How about no. Doesn't matter, I'll find him." 

"Oh yeah? How?" Gwen demands. "You need us, we can cover more ground--" 

"Don't need you, I can do it myself," Peter says bluntly. "I know what he does for his day job. If I can't find Venom the giant goo monster, I'll just look for Eddie Brock." 


End file.
